Netflix is brilliant, but its user ratings are extremely unreliable, which makes it tricky to find a great horror movie to watch. You can pretty much guess that Pegasus vs Chimera isn't going to be a masterpiece but when you're flipping through reams of similar-looking straight-to-DVD horror, how can you tell which the corkers will be?

Here's how! We've trawled the service and collated a list of 16 genuinely excellent horror movies available to watch on Netflix now.

1. It Follows (2014)

Super creepy modern take on the slasher, without any slashing, where the big bad is essentially a sexually transmitted ghost. Maika Monroe plays a teen haunted by a relentless shape shifting being after the curse has been passed to her via a sexual encounter. Clever and unnerving.

It caused a lot of buzz when it first screened at Sundance, then later ruled the festival circuit. This Australian indie by debut filmmaker Jennifer Kent is chilling, beautiful and really quite sad. It follows a grieving widow who's the mother of a challenging young boy. One night when it's time for a story he brings in a brand new book he's found, which begins, "If it's in a word or in a look, you can't get rid of the Ba-ba-doooook..." Brrr.

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3. Creep (2014)

No, not the one set on the tube. Absolutely brilliant and like nothing you've ever seen, this "mumblegore" movie looks like it's going to be a found-footage flick for the first couple of minutes. Then it looks like a weird comedy. And then it turns into something altogether stranger. Deeply, deeply unsettling while still being vaguely hilarious. Written by and starring Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice.

4. Zombieland (2009)

Romantic, funny, frantic zombie movie that regenerated the genre starring Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson as a bunch of misfits who band together to travel across post-apocalyptic America. Includes one of the greatest surprise cameos ever.

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5. Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Far, far better than the title suggested, this is actually a really smart satire about two nice rednecks in the woods who encounter some stupid college kids who keep having accidents. Funny, gory, kind of sweet. This'll appeal to fans of Cabin In The Woods.

6. Housebound (2014)

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A delinquent woman is put under house arrest after trying to steal a safe at an ATM, in a house which her mother insists is haunted. This horror comedy from New Zealand is clever and fresh, mixing different subgenres of horror and keeping you guessing till the end.

7. Hush (2016)

Mike Flanagan, who made Oculus with Karen Gillan, directs this tense home-invasion movie with a twist, namely that the resident of the house being broken into by a maniac is profoundly deaf. The opening 20 minutes, while he's stalking her without her knowledge, is chilling – it subverts the genre while hitting all the right beats.

8. Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971)

The strange and haunting tale of a mentally unstable woman who goes with her husband and his friend to live in a remote farmhouse, where they meet a beautiful drifter who becomes part of their lives. It's a vampire movie of sorts, though it's more interested in sex and psychology than fangs or gore.

9. Paranormal Activity (2007)

They were a massive phenomenon, they made loads of money and spawned loads of sequels and we're all a bit over it now. But the original Paranormal Activity is actually very scary. The second one (also on Netflix) is very good too – doing basically the same thing as the first but with a sense of humour. If somehow you've been living under a rock and have missed this check it out immediately.

10. Poltergeist 2 (1986)

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The remake of the first film is on Netflix but we wouldn't bother – it's not awful but it's not great either. Instead revisit the sequel to the original directed by Brian Gibson (and not Tobe Hooper. Or indeed Steven Spielberg, depending on who you believe made the first one). It introduces the sickly and menacing preacher Kane, who comes bothering Carole Anne. Not as good as the first but still creepy as hell.

11. Let The Right One In (2008)

This Swedish vampire movie came out of nowhere to wide critical acclaim getting itself an American remake on the way (called Let Me In, not as good). For good reason - it's both a touching coming of age story about two lonely outsiders, and a shockingly violent revenge fantasy, perfectly balanced together. Gorgeous and chilling.

12. Shutter (2008)

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This is the remake of the terrifying Thai film, unfortunately – the original is of course better, but as remakes of Asian horror movies go this is among the best. It stars Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor as a couple who notice strange images showing on their photographs and uncover some dark stuff when they investigate. Has a rather bleak and horrible ending.

13. The Invitation (2015)

Interesting and tense chiller from Karyn Kusama who made Jennifer's Body. It's actually nothing like Jennifer's Body, rather a kind of horror of manners where Logan Marshall Green and his new girlfriend have to attend a reunion dinner party hosted by his ex-wife and her new fellow. It's totes awks. And then it gets creepy.

14. Faults (2014)

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is brilliant in this odd story of a broke and unscrupulous de-programmer (Leland Orser) who is hired to extricate her from a cult. Black humour and constant rug-pulling develops into something altogether creepier in this interesting, non-gory indie horror.

15. The Visit (2015)

M Night Shyamalan made a return to form with this pared down chiller about two kids who pay a visit to the grandparents they have never met while their mum goes on holiday. Their grandparents don't let them leave their rooms after 9.30pm, keep a huge pile of poo in the shed, a force them to play a really harrowing game of Yathtzee. Creepy, icky and deranged.

16. The Cabin in The Woods (2012)

Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's love/hate letter to the horror genre stars Chris Hemsworth and Haley Bennett as teens who with a group of friends head to said cabin and start behaving very strangely. Meanwhile, in an office somewhere Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins are up something... Brilliant meta-horror game changer, which features a merman.